Review: My Mad Fat Diary, Season 2, Episode 2

Radar

Genre:ComedyDrama

Funny and relatable

The frustrating development of Rae's character

TV Review

This week it seems that lead character Rae is having trouble understanding why Finn, the guy of her dreams, is with her. The end of episode 1 saw Rae having a panic attack when she was just walking down the corridor holding Finn’s hand.

Episode 2 starts with Rae avoiding college in the first couple of weeks, which also means that she is avoiding Finn. They still haven’t had sex yet, because Rae is constantly putting it off. She is also struggling with college and staying under the radar. Her friend Archie is gay and only Rae knows; he has given her advice about how to fit in (the guys Archie is hanging out with seem to be jack-the-lads, and he is pretending that he loves women).

Chloe, Rae’s best female friend, who was pretty and popular in high school, is finding it difficult to fit into college life. Pictures from a sexy photo shoot appear on the college notice board. It turns out Chloe showed the photos to people at a party. More photos appear around the school. It turns out Chloe posted the sexy pictures round the school herself to make her popular with the cool girls.

Rae is going to therapy group meetings and a guy from her college, Liam, also goes there. She strikes up the courage to speak to Liam, who was there when she happened to set off the fire alarm by opening up a fire door to escape from college.

Rae continues on her mission to avoid Finn around college and comes to the conclusion that she would be his girlfriend on a part time basis, only seeing him outside college. The only person who doesn’t know this is Finn himself. Watching this episode, it seems that Rae can’t get past her body confidence issues. She has come to the conclusion through her counselling sessions with Kester that that she has three options: leave college, become confident in herself and therefore not care what other people think about her, and the third option was for her to leave Finn by breaking their relationship off.

An incident happens in college when Finn tries to talk to Rae, and they end up being locked in the disabled toilet when the handle breaks off. Rae gets in a panic that everyone will think they are having sex. In her head, Rae thinks this means she will be gossiped about and on the radar in college, which is the last thing she wants. After the incident, Rae makes her decision and decides to split up with Finn. Episode 2 ends with Rae setting fire to an advertising billboard with a model advertising a bra.

I really did enjoy this episode. As a viewer I personally feel that Rae as a character is getting a bit frustrating to watch. She liked Finn, she got the boy, and then she didn’t understand why the boy liked her now she has dumped the boy of her dreams. I hope as a character Rae’s story will develop and she can learn to love herself.